Waste Management Inc.’s former chief financial officer, James Koenig, will not settle civil charges, brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that he participated in an accounting fraud at the trash-hauling company.
The SEC announced that it will proceed with its case against
Koenig, according to Bloomberg.
Koenig “believes and stands by the accuracy of the financial statements issued by Waste Management during his entire tenure,” Harlan Loeb, a spokesman for the former finance chief, told the wire service. A press release by the law firm Sachnoff & Weaver also noted that “Waste Management received unqualified opinions from its outside auditor” during the entire time that Koenig served as CFO.
On Monday, Waste Management agreed to pay $26.8 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the commission against four former top executives. They founder and former chairman Dean Buntrock, who the SEC accused of leading a massive accounting fraud; Phillip Rooney; Thomas Hau; and Herbert Getz.